London Welsh made to wait to discover RFU punishment for fielding ineligible player in Premiership

The disciplinary hearing which will decide the Premiership fate of London
Welsh will enter a second day today after breaking up on Tuesday night with
the club still in the process of summing up their case.

In the dock: Tyson Keats played nine times for London Welsh while incorrectly registeredPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

Welsh fielded an ineligible player in nine matches this season, an offence for which sanctions include a fine and a points deduction which could condemn them to relegation.

The hearing ran for six hours on Tuesday but had not even reached the point where the three-member panel had retired to consider their verdict. It could yet run into tomorrow and Welsh may even have to wait longer than that to discover the outcome as the chairman of the Rugby Football Union disciplinary panel, Jeremy Summers, is thought to want to delay the verdict until he publishes his written reasons for reaching it.

The case centres on the charge that Welsh did not correctly register their New Zealand-born scrum-half, Tyson Keats, before the start of the season.

The RFU had finished summing up when proceedings adjourned but the panel were still hearing from Welsh. Earlier, three witnesses had appeared on behalf of the club: chief executive Tony Copsey, vice-chairman John Taylor and Steve Lewis. They were represented by Tom Richards, of Blackstone Chambers, who also represented the club when they won their case against Premiership Rugby to win promotion to the top flight.

Case history suggests that London Welsh could be docked up to two points for each match in which Keats played while he was ineligible, and even a nine-point sanction – one point per match – would leave the club in a perilous position.

The Exiles are three points above bottom club Sale Sharks and two behind London Irish with five league games remaining.

The disciplinary panel, which also included Premiership Rugby chief executive Mark McCafferty and Peter Budge, heard evidence that Keats was registered as English but was then re-registered on Jan 3 on an ancestry visa as one of his grandparents was born in the UK.

London Welsh’s hopes for leniency included the fact that they drew the matter to the RFU’s attention last month. The club’s representatives are thought to have been asked at the hearing why Keats, 31, who has made 14 Premiership appearances for the club, did not play for them for more than a month after their victory against London Irish on Dec 1.

Keats missed the league games against Worcester and Wasps, as well as the Amlin Challenge Cup back-to-back matches with Grenoble. His name was also absent on an injury update released by the club on Dec 13.

His next appearance was on Jan 6 – after his re-registration – against Harlequins and he has played in all of the club’s games since.

The matter is also complicated by a separate charge against the club’s former team manager, Mike Scott, for bringing the game into disrepute by allegedly providing false information about Keats’s registration. No date has yet been set for Scott’s hearing. He left the club in December.

On Dec 7 London Welsh flanker Mike Denbee posted on Twitter: “Anyone seen Mike Scott? Supposed to be in Grenoble with London Welsh but never turned up. No contact since.”

Keats and his agent are not thought to be linked to the charges.

London Welsh will have the right to appeal against any verdict and have 14 days to do so from the receipt of the written judgment.

Welsh’s arrival in the Premiership was not confirmed until last summer, and only then after winning their appeal against an RFU ruling that they had not met sufficient criteria to gain Premiership entry, namely primacy of tenure at Oxford’s Kassam Stadium, where they have played their home games this term.

The appeal panel agreed with the club’s argument that the applied criteria contravened EU and UK competition laws, and Newcastle were relegated after finishing bottom.

Meanwhile, Wasps have announced the signing of former England fly-half Andy Goode from Worcester. Goode, who won 17 caps, will move to Wasps after Nicky Robinson’s decision to join Bristol next season and Stephen Jones’s announcing his retirement.